DAO.. is it any good?

[james.lynch]

I'd be interested to know, if anybody has played around with DAO (Design Animation Option) I think again it has a bad rep (similar to that of ARX which I think has been restored a littleby this post

) so I was wondering if anybody has created any really good animations?


again if you think about what ProE has traditionally created wrt to renderings, I think theabove post are quite a bit better! so has anybody created any animations "quite a bit better" to what we are used to seeing?


I'm of the opinion that there is enough control of the actual components within DAO especially if used with MDX, and taking advantage of transparency at time, display at time, BUT (and I think this deserves a new sentence)


I THINK VIEW AT TIME IS TERRIBLE!! the interpolation is terrible, I think it's all just terrible!


but then again I though room set up was terrible? (until I learned how to do it properly

) maybe I'm missing something!


I think that a fantastic addition would be to be able to sketch a curve (2d or 3d) attach a camera to that curve, shift snap the camera target to a component/edge/vertex and simply give it a motion driver (similar to a slot follower connection in mechanism) I think this should be basic functionality.. I put this question to Rick Leeds who is one of the PLM's for Assemblies and DAO and he responded that I should submit an enhancement request and it will have to get looked at, but maybe not implemented.. bu it would if there was enough people behind it!


should this be a venture people think we should look at,we shoul dsubmit a few enhancement requestsand see if we can get them to do something about it!


what'd ye think?


James

 

[james.lynch]

Anybody?? no?


James

 

[justgeo]

I've used it successfullyfor some small animations but I've had no luck with the BIG one I wanted to make. Showing the general motion of the surgical implants isn't too hard, and the engineers love them for their presentations.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />


However, the big one I've wanted to animate is a surgical retraction system. I am able to create my snapshots but I cannot string them together. ProE crashes every time I click the Start Animation button. PTC's answer was to try a newer Datecode; however our IT dept controls that decision. Aug 1 we're finally upgrading to WF2 so I'm really interested in seeing what's been updated, and seeing if I can finally get this animation to work.


Now I just need to figure out the correct lighting and material colors so I can render the animations...


In a nutshell, I do enjoy the DAO capabilities but I do think it could be a bit smoother to use.


Justin

 

[james.lynch]

Thanks for the response Justin, I must say that I haven't had much problems with using snapshots bu then again I tend to use mechanism connections and drivers wherever possible..


as I was saying I think the biggest flaw is the camera movement! and I think this is fundamental to creating realistic animations! slow camera pans, maybe the possibility of multiple camera sequences of the same movement and then use a media editing package to blend then together..

Now I just need to figure out the correct lighting and material colors so I can render the animations...

check out this post [url]http://www.mcadcentral.com/proe/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=27 756&PN=0&TPN=1[/url]if you have any questions about rendering! a couple of guys there seem to be pretty good!

More comments please!


James

 

[coolntn1]

For all my rendering and animation needs, I turn to other packages that are more geared toward rendering and animation.


I use a package called CINEMA 4D made by Maxon Computer. www.maxoncomputer.com


Everything is fully adjustable including speeding up, slowing down camera pans, etc. You can even attach lights to cameras so the lights move with it. Just tons of options.


And yes, it's the animations and renderings that always impress...and thats where it's value comes into play. Sometimes management will shoot down an idea unless you've got some great visuals to back it up.

 

[coolntn1]

Oh yes...and in the 5 or 6 years using it...I can say it's only crashed (prematurely exited) maybe 5-10 times. Very impressive and very stable.

 

[james.lynch]

I've heard of Cinema 4D alright.. you are right it's quite impressive! as are the likes of 3DS MAX, MAYA etc etc..


but when you have a large assembley, full of mechanism connections (already defined in Pro.. granted can be recreated relatively easily (can be a little time consuming) so lets say you've done that, created you animation looks great, then marketing says something like maybe make th elogo a cut instead of a protrusion!


you have to pretty much start from scratch for aMINOR change.. yo uhave to re export your files (which can be quitechallenging in itself!) recreate your connections, add you texture maps, granted yo ucan use thesame lights, camers, room etc..but you have to admit, it's quite a bit of work!


What I want is a fully associative solution! which I suppose is what PTC pride themselves on...


I think with ARX (photolux) PTC have brough photorealistic rendering to ProE and I think that if a little work was done to DAO, they could almost have it!


it's never going tobeas goodas a dedicated package (well maybe it will when they introduce the latest Lightworks rendering engine) but I think it can get pretty close!


more comments please!


James

 

[coolntn1]

Certainly agree with you...it depends on the complexity and the intent of the particular assignment.


For me, Cinema 4D works great and is an inexpensive alternative to Max, Alias, etc.


They come along way...and now even have an "Engineering Bundle"...not sure how different it is from the rest of the package though.

 

[acmueller]

Hey James

I agree with your assessment about the views. That they suck in
the DAO. Sometimes a view I have defined in standard mode
doesn't even end up correctly placed in my animation even after
immediately saving the view and going into animation mode and directly
creating the animation. Your idea about a camera path is
something I would agree with. But the rest is pretty good.
Transparency, display styles, and servos work great.



I try to use mechanism to move my parts, which requires more set up,
but is very stable and gives me a lot of flexibility in moving parts.



When coupled with the rendering possibilities, I think the ProE package
is competitive, but not quite up to par. They really need to fix
the View problems before I would call the package "better" than the
rest. I'm disappointed that nothing really happened in WF3 with
design animation option.